II Augusta
Heavy Infantry(0.6.7)Side / Back
Short description
Legio II Augusta was a Roman legion, levied by Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus in 43 BC, and still operative in Britannia in 4th century. Its emblems were the Capricornus, Pegasus and Mars.
Description
Legio II Augusta was levied by Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus in 43 BC, and still operative in Britannia in the 4th century. Its emblems were the Capricornus, Pegasus and Mars. II Augusta was originally raised by Octavian and consul Gaius Vibius Pansa Caetronianus in 43 BC, to fight against Mark Anthony; II Augusta fought in the battle of Philippi and in the battle of Perugia. At the beginning of Augustus rule, in 25 BC, this legion was relocated in Hispania, to fight in the Cantabrian Wars, which definitively established Roman power in Hispania, and later camped in Hispania Tarraconensis. With the annihilation of Legio XVII, XVIII and XIX in the battle of the Teutoburg Forest (AD 9), II Augusta moved to Germania, possibly in the area of Mainz. After 17, it was at Argentorate (modern Strasbourg).
The legion participated in the Roman invasion of Britain in 43. The future Emperor Vespasian was the legion's commander at the time and led the campaign against the Durotriges tribe. Although it was recorded as suffering a defeat at the hands of the Silures in 52, the II Augusta proved to be one of the best legions, even after its disgrace during the uprising of queen Boudica, when its praefectus castrorum, who was then its acting commander (its Legatus and Tribunes probably being absent with the governor Suetonius Paulinus), contravened Suetonius' orders to join him and so later committed suicide. After the defeat of Boudica, the legion was dispersed over several bases; from 66 to around 74 it was stationed at Glevum (modern Gloucester), and then moved to Isca Silurum (modern Caerleon), building a stone fortress that the soldiers occupied until the end of the 3rd century. The legion also had connections with the camp at Alchester in Oxfordshire; stamped tiles record it in the second century at Abonae (Sea Mills, Bristol) on the tidal shore of the Avon (Princeton Encyclopaedia).
In 122, II Augusta helped to build Hadrian's Wall.
In 196, II Augusta supported the claim for the purple of the governor of Britannia, Clodius Albinus, who was defeated by Septimius Severus. In occasion of the Scottish campaign of Severus, the Second moved to Carpow, to return to Caerleon under Alexander Severus.